So, 30 pounds seems like a common goal. Should we do something about it?

5lbs by [insert date here] ;)

I've started walking/running 3 days a week and eating healthier. The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make it a lifestyle change and not a fad/short term diet. And it takes 16 days to make a habit (I think). Also been playing Wii tennis and boxing.

What BTD said. The mechanics of losing weight are simple. More exercise and diet modification. Don't drink your calories. Whole grain bread. One slice instead of two. No more mounds of greasy rice or noodles. Limit desserts and alcohol to truly special occasions. Portion control. Don't eat late. Brush your teeth after every meal to eliminate the need to throw fresh tastes after sour ones.

And, yes, I'll say it. Everybody stop posting all the time about all the unhealthy food you ate/are eating/want to eat.

Already am. But I am not looking at it in terms of goal-weight or even pounds lost. Life change, not diet. Health, not size.

And while the mechanics of losing weight may be "that simple," SL, I have watched myself eat less and move more than others who are on a similar track and lose a lot faster. The slow (for me) process is very difficult and disheartening but I'm still on track.

I meant conceptually simple. I've never had the metabolism that others have, even when I'm in a fairly athletic routine. I accept it and keep on keeping on.

You got it. But, if your metabolism has been out of whack for a very long time or you're "older", the process can be slower and frustrating.

For me, losing weight usually is a by product of eating better and exercising more, but the health benefits of fewer pounds are HUGE for me. I don't care if I eat a perfect diet, if I'm carrying 50 extra pounds around, my risk for all sorts of "things that killed my family" go WAAAAYYYY up.

Fair, sure... I'm sorry if I came across as snappish; I have just had a lot of people tell me how it should be "easy" for me, and it just isn't so! But, like you, it's a keep-on keeping-on thing. Fortunately this time around, I've found success in forgiving myself an occasional misstep; they're getting rarer. This is a learning process, and unlike prior attempts where one, say, serving of string cheese would make me fall off the wagon, this time it's been: I ate this string cheese. It had x calories. I will eat less by x calories, and do better tomorrow.

Every body reacts differently to food. Some people (like GD) can eat less, move more and see a change quickly. Some people like myself (and sounds like H) can eat less, move more and it's a long road to see change.

From what it seems, men can drop weight a lot easier then women. It's genetics and biology.

So I've been working on a reply to this thread. Some of these things have actually come up for me as well recently and I've been mulling about posting them.

I don't look in mirrors anymore. I noticed it a year or so ago. Oh I check to see if my make up is smudged or if I've gotten something on my shirt but I don't really really look. A quick glance to see what I need to see and that's it. I don't like what I see so I just don't look. I caught myself in a reflection at the mall this weekend and was horrified to be honest. I'm not sure how I got to be this size. I avoid photos if at all possible as well.

Growing up I was scrawny - a beanpole. I spent three years trying to GAIN weight. My goal was to get to 115 forever. I didn't get my period until I was 16 so flat as a board as well. And to be honest I was fine with that. I'm not a fan of the boobs. They get in my way.

My Dad always called me ugly. As a nickname. It was supposed to be humorous - and I took it that way on the surface. But years of it and I guess it seeped in a little at a time. Maybe I really am ugly. My Great-Aunt would always say I should be a model and I secretly thought she was being overly kind, and perhaps she was becoming a slight bit dotty. I look at photos of myself then and I really don't look horrible at all. But at the time - that's not what I thought.

I think part of it has been Maddy, because when she was smaller she was an exact replicate of me sans eye color. If she was that cute I couldn't have been that horrible if we look alike right?

What brought this up for me was last weekend with my Sister & Brother In Law (he went to High School with us). They were telling Maddy how back in the day I wasn't as uncool as she thinks I am now. And it was so odd to me. How other people have said things over the years about how they think of/remember me is so totally off from how I saw/see myself. My sister said I was a "trend setter. Everyone waited to see what she was wearing and copied it". My Brother In Law "Everyone knew Katie McQ - and if you didn't you knew of her". Seriously me? I had one date in high school. I wasn't unpopular but I was never homecoming queen or LIT princess or anything like that. Oh sure I knew everyone but it was a small school and half of us started out in Kindergarten so of course I knew people. My friend Steve (Joe cool, captain of the football team) mentioned a few years ago that I was "hot, gorgeous, sexy, amazing, etc" - how could I be so totally off? Goober would have been my description of myself. Oh I would have thrown in smart and funny and all that. But looks wise - goober.

My opinion - I'm average. I don't think I'm ugly but I don't think I'm all that either. On a decent hair day in the right light - I'm not scary. And I've always been ok with that. I've always been in the brains/personality count more camp anyway. But now that I weigh more than I did when I was preggers - ugh. I just can't look in the mirror for more than a few seconds.

Of course this is all my own doing - and I need to get up off my ever growing butt and do something about it. Swanie's cajoled me into the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in August so that's my goal. To get in shape by then so I don't need paramedics.

How do we get so off in our perceptions of ourselves compared to how the rest of the planet seems to view us?